Requirements on the performance of industrial tools are becoming ever greater, and the ratio of cost to benefit is especially being observed ever more critically. In all industries, the overall costs of production units are considered, and not only the acquisition price: the maintenance effort, replacement parts cost, failure rate, etc., in sum determine the service life costs of the unit. Naturally, productivity also plays a major role. Units that people like to use and that are easy to operate contribute to an increased productivity. For this reason, the user friendliness of a unit is an important differentiating feature for the suppliers of industrial tools. The actuating elements of a device are of greater meaning because they are often operated/used. An electrical or mechanical fault in such a small part can bring the unit to a standstill. The actuating elements (or switch units), among them switches, buttons and/or rotating or sliding elements have to be robust, easy to handle, able to be set in a clear manner and resistant to wear, to the greatest extent possible.
In units that are now on the market, actuating elements, such as switches and rotating knobs are furnished with a mechanical click point torque, in order to improve the operability and the unambiguity of the switching. The click point torque is generated by frictional elements or spring elements, as a rule, and the electrical switching function is implemented by an electromechanical switch. The service life of this type of actuating elements is limited by its mechanical properties, and its wear leads to a reduction in the MTBF (mean time between failures) of the unit.